Bay Street May Open Higher On Firm Commodity Prices

(RTTNews) - Higher crude oil and gold prices, and firm European stocks point to a positive start for the Canadian market Monday morning. U.S. President Donald Trump's threat that he will impose a 25% tax on all steel and aluminium imports could weigh a bit and limit market's upside.

Trump has said he will announce a 25% tax on all steel and aluminium imported into the United States. "We'll also be announcing steel tariffs on Monday. Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday. "Aluminum, too," he added.

Trump also said that he would announce at a news conference later this week reciprocal tariffs on all countries that impose import duty on US goods. "If they charge us, we charge them," Trump said, without specifying the nations which he aims to target.

Any move to levy tariffs on aluminum, could hurt Canada, which is the biggest exporter of aluminum into the U.S.

In corporate news, MDA Space Ltd. (MDA.TO) announced Monday that it has signed a definitive contract with Globalstar, Inc. (GSAT) to be the prime contractor for the satellite operator's next generation low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation. The total contract is valued at approximately $1.1 billion

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) has announced that it plans to sell the entire equity investment in Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) through a registered offering and Schwab's share repurchase. TD, which owns 184.7 million shares of Schwab's common stock, will maintain its business relationship with Schwab through the Insured Deposit Account Agreement. Schwab has agreed to buy back $1.5 billion of its shares from TD after the offering is completed.

The Canadian market ended weak on Friday, weighed down by losses in communications, healthcare and technology sectors. Besides reacting to earnings updates, investors digested Canadian jobs data, and assessed the non-farm payroll data from the U.S. Labor Department as well.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 91.58 points or 0.36% at 25,442.91, after scaling a low of 25,380.38 and a high of 25,587.53 intraday. The index recorded a weekly loss of 0.35%.

Asian stocks turned in a mixed performance on Monday following U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to impose tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum and introduce reciprocal tariffs on many countries this week in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

European stocks are up in positive territory with investors shrugging off Trump's tariff threats, and focusing on earnings and other corporate news for now.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are up $1.03 or about 1.45% at $72.03 a barrel.

Gold futures are gaining $41.00 or 1.43% at $2,928.60 an ounce, while Silver futures are up $0.207 or 0.63% at $32.650 an ounce.